It costs $US9 million to make each episode, half of which is due to the massive salaries paid to the main cast members (Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco) who each get $US1 million per episode.

With more than 200 episodes of The Big Bang Theory already made, there are enough episodes for channels around the world to screen the show five days a week for almost a year without having to repeat episodes.

As Fox News reported recently: “While Big Bang Theory has generated more than $US1 billion in revenue to date, it’s unlikely the networks will want to commit to an even more expensive cost-per-episode when they already have hundreds of existing episodes to draw from.”

So perhaps this Sheldon spin-off is just an attempt by the show’s creators to cut down on costs while still making a show that appeals to the millions of Big Bang Theory fans around the world.